The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - People We Miss Hearing From - Kevin Eschenfelder

Episode Date: April 14, 2020

is the Matt Thomas show. You want to build a Mount Rushmore of television personalities in sports in the last, I don't want to age Kevin Ashenfelder, but it's got to be, see, 25, 30 years of working for all the variety of regional networks in our community. Am I right, Kevin Ashenfelder, 25, 30 years? Is that giving you proper claim? You are so full of bull. Mount Rushmore Come on, man

No, yeah, that's been Yeah, right at about 25 years Because when I think of studio host In the history of this community You, Hannah Storm back on the old Channel 20 vision days Yep Barry Warner did it for a while And there's nobody else, right?

I think you're probably right I'm thinking about that, yeah, I'm full time, it's been right at 25 years 19 yeah it's been a long time but uh no i'm very very very very fortunate and you knew that the matt thomas show was woven into the fabric of society yeah just like the wwe we're a central business you are you're very essential and you know what i consider you we're not we don't just know each other we're friends right yeah we've been we've been we've done it for a long time yes yeah okay you've broken bread at my house you realize this is you realize this is the first time i've ever been

on the matt thomas show um um Is it really? That's a huge problem of my part then. No, it may speak more of your guests than me. Better than you. Hey, we should mention, and Ross talked about this earlier, he loved listening to the University of Houston beatdown of the Oklahoma Sooners yesterday, or last on our radio station. That was a fantastic, that was the most fun season.

I've ever been around a college football team, A, because the opponents were really good. Remember, that was a year. Didn't we go to Louisville? like the next week and win there too. Am I mixing my seasons up? You're mixing your season. Beat Louisville the year before that at Louisville. Remember Louisville wouldn't come to Houston until November.

So they were at Houston in November, and they were like number four in the country and knocking on the door as far as the playoffs are concerned. And they sack Lamar Jack. I think it was 31 to nothing at halftime. They just blew Louisville off the field. But yeah, you know, it was really cool last night. I've never heard myself do an entire game.

And I've heard highlights, but that was really neat to be able to sit there and just go on the I-Hart app and listen to it. I listen to 790 and listen to the whole game. Just a lot different perspective than something I've never been able to do before. That was fun. And it's weird because I've had a lot of other broadcasters say the exact same thing to me. We don't like listen to ourselves. Like we're going to have some rocket replays of some games. Like James is 61-point game.

I called that one in New York. I did a Rockets playoff game that's going to be on. I've been on with Craig a few times. I don't like listen to my own voice on a game call because I'll sit there and go, why did I say that? Or am I painting the picture accurately? So, yeah, it's a little different to hear yourself in a repeat mode. And speaking repeats, you guys at AT&T are putting together some classics.

How deep is the library? Can you go back to super old stuff? Are you kind of keeping it to what's going on the last two or three years? We are trying to dip our toe into going deeper as far as working with the NBA. That is hopefully that is still to come. We're still working on that. But right now we're replaying all of the wins from the rocket season and then all of the Astros wins from 2019. And what's really cool is not only can you see those on the network, but our Instagram live, we do an Instagram live.

Kaylee does it for the Rockets on Mondays and Wednesdays. And Julia Morales does it on Tuesdays and Thursdays. for Astros. Maybe a little 15-minute deal leading up to the game and kind of just catching up with some of the executives and some of the players. So that's something certainly worth checking out. It's very casual, kind of gives you an idea what these guys are up to right now. And that can be on the AT&T Instagram and, of course, every night with the league replays. I want you to tell the audience, because you have been a studio host for every team in the state, it feels like, right? There isn't a team you have not been a studio

host for. You were in Dallas quite a while working with HSC and I know it changed to Prime and it had a variety of different network names. Tell the audience the challenges you would have when you would work a Mavericks and a Spurs game on the same night or maybe on back-to-back nights.

You want to know what the greatest challenge was. And the worst, I'll say this was the worst, Matt, was the year of the shortened NBA season. Because if you'll remember, the Knicks would play at San Antonio on Tuesday they'd play in Dallas on Wednesday and they play in Houston on Friday.

And then it would be whatever the other two teams, whoever was in Houston would be. It just, they rotated. And I was doing spurs, rockets, and Mavericks. And the biggest thing for me was doing a half-time show and remembering which audience or which game I was doing. You know, or the Rockets playing the Celtics tonight because I was doing the Rockets in Nix last night. Now the Knicks are playing in Dallas. And it was just a, that I would literally put a, you know, on my, on my, on my, sheet, I would write Knicks, Spurs, because that was a half-time I was doing. But keeping up with all the

games, and, you know, that was the, that was the difficult part. But yeah, there were times that was, and I also did Dallas Stars, Texas Rangers, of course, obviously the Astros. And yes, it was, it was a little head spinning from time to time. I was, I was worried about remembering who was playing and who the announcers were, so I wouldn't, I wouldn't be throwing it to Bill Brown I'm like with Bill Worell or that kind of thing. Visiting with Kevin Eschenfelder from AT&T Sports Network and our series of people we miss hearing from. Calvin Murphy's, you've worked with him for a long time.

Has there been a day where you just, when he walked in, had the suit that you were speechless, or is it now just so common that he wears stuff that you just, nothing would phase you at this point? Nothing would phase me at this point. I like it when he wears the, you know, wear those dual-sided sequins. So right before we go on the air, you know, so it'll be, it'll be a white jacket.

But right before we go on the air, I'll take like four fingers and rub it up the side of his arm or something like that. And then he's got like a four little, you know, gold stripes on it. And that's, you know, Ed Murphy's a, he is a, quite a character. I love that guy. And, you know, we have a lot of fun. And, you know, I talked to him just the other day. he is something else.

And his suit, it's amazing how many people in, you know, the basketball NBA fandom that no Calvin is the guy with the crazy suits rather than the guy that was basketball Hall of Fame. It's crazy because I've been watching a lot of old Rocket games just to kind of catch up on things. I'm frankly bored. And we just forget how wonderful a player he was, not only as good as he was,

but there weren't a lot of guys 5 and 11 and under that are in basketball's Hall of Fame today. Nope, not many. I think that's what Tiny Archibald. I don't want to go through, but you know, Tiny Archibald, maybe Bob Trujee, there's not many. And he was something else. And you know what was really cool was when I started watching Rockets, I'm obviously older than you. And I started watching Rockets when at Hoffines Pavilion.

And some of my earliest sports memories, I can remember Wilts Chamberlain playing there and Jerry West. And, you know, I was a little young to be able to kind of grasp. whole thing as far as who these guys were, but I certainly remember it. And that was when Murph and it was Murph and Rudy T. And they were the team. This was even before Moses Malone. I'm talking about going back to the Mike Neulman, Dave Wall, Mike Dunleavy, you know, Kevin Cooner, Ed Ratliff, easy Ed Ratliff.

I mean, I can go back to those days. And that was whenever, that was kind of when I cut my teeth on starting to follow the NBA. Could you imagine the NBA playing in a college arena like they used to back? with a logo on the floor of University of Houston or, you know, the Atlanta Hawks played at Georgia Tech's facility with the big Georgia Tech logo in the middle. Can you imagine that happening today? Well, actually, probably this year, yes, I could certainly imagine. Which goes to the next point. And look, I've always been curious about your thoughts about the television industry and how games are produced and the latest technology. And frankly, AT&T is

afraid to put equipment in and to give you some incredible looks of things in slow-mos. Have you had much conversations with your producers and the higher-up set AT&T about if they go to no games with fans, and we're all watching them, whether they be in high school gyms, the MBA arenas, in Arizona, what kind of television nuances or potential challenges we could have when we get the resumption of games? Has that been talked about much at your local? level? Not, not really. And I'll tell you why it's almost, you know, is it a wasted effort to worry about something that you're not sure is going to happen yet? Because we don't know, nobody knows what's going to happen yet. This has all been so unpredictable, obviously, who knew we would be there?

I mean, if I had told you this, you know, eight weeks ago, nobody would believe what's going on right now. So, no, we haven't really talked much about that. But, you know, speaking to your point, What I really enjoyed watching is some of those old games like you were talking about and how things have changed so much. I was watching a baseball game from 1979 the other day, and Jack Brickhouse was calling the game. He would at the top of the – it's 3 o'clock here in Chicago and WGN, Chicago. He would do the ice he during the baseball game. It's just – it's no graphics. And if you listen to the announcers, no stats.

I mean, you got an average. how many home runs and how many RBIs that the batter had. And you knew basically the record and the ERA of the pitcher. Man, once you got past that, there was just nothing there. And it was interesting to see how that has changed. You know, another thing that's really changed too, and this kind of struck me, is I was watching an old NBA game, and there was a timeout called, and they were like two coaches.

There was a head coach and an assistant coach. You know, now it's this puffy of guys that, go out there and suits and everybody's got a clipboard. It's a stark difference between what it was, you know, 25, 30 years ago. Well, I want to say even as late as say during the Rockets' late 80s runs, the Western Conference Championship team that Bill Fitch had Carol Dawson and Rudy Tom Jonovich, and that was it. That was it. Don Cheney.

I was telling Don that one day, I was like, you know, the weirdest thing I was watching one of your games, you know, you guys call time out, and it was you and Citi. and Rudy and that was it. And it was three of you and there was no nobody else. And, you know, it was, it was just, it just looked really strange. I know that's a kind of, you know, odd observations, but it was, it was just a weird look. Now you have so many guys that you don't even know what, I don't even know what a lot of them even do. But, yeah, it was strange.

Well, I know that you're somewhat enjoying the downtime with your wife and your family. But I will say this. I hope that you're incredibly busy, I don't know, in the next 45 to 60 days, because you might, as a television partner for both the Astros and Rock, it's just like us here on 790, we may have nonstop games on at weird times, which, frankly, I will take at this point. I mean, I could see if they really do go to Arizona, Kev, and the Astros are playing the Padres,

it could be an 11 a.m. first pitch, because my guess is mid-May in Phoenix, Arizona. You don't want to be playing outdoor baseball, And that's what the situation would be. So it could be an adjustment for all of us. I think the live games, especially for our radio station, your network would be certainly something we would aspire to have very soon. Yeah, you're no kidding, man.

Bring it on. It's going to be when it is, when it does come back around, the busier the better. I'm ready for it. Certainly, I would not make a good lottery winner. I'm not good at just sitting around doing nothing. So, yeah, I say bring it on. Well, tell the family we sent our best. Thank you, friend, for joining me on the show for the first time.

and I would think when we get these games going again, we shall have you on a second time. Is that all right with you? All right, Maddie. Good talking to you, buddy. All right, buddy. Thanks very much. Our good friend, Kevin Ashenfelder,

from AT&T Sportsnet, joining us here on the radio show.